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KLAPISCH: Baseball's 10 most interesting | Mets sked

Bob Klapisch, USA TODAY NETWORK
Published 2:53 p.m. ET Feb. 3, 2017

New York Mets starting pitchers Bartolo Colon, left, and Noah Syndergaard (34) walk along the warning track during workouts for the National League wild-card baseball game against the San Francisco Giants last October.(Photo: jULIE JACOBSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Baseball has a way to go before it catches the NBA in celebrity star power. Let’s be honest. In a steel-cage match between Mike Trout and Stephen Curry or Kevin Durant – who’s more popular? Who's better known? – it’s no contest. The national pastime still relies more on loyalty to teams, not individual players, to sell tickets. No shame in that.

But that’s not to say baseball isn’t evolving. To the contrary, there’s enough cool storylines and personalities to justify a Top Ten List. We love Noah Syndergaard’s Twitter feed. And Joe Maddon’s what-me-worry managerial style. And whatever ragged behavior Chris Sale brings to Fenway this year.

With spring training right around the corner, we’re about to wrestle with that timeless question: will Bartolo Colon ever be out of style? (Heck, no).

In no particular order, here are baseball’s best, brightest and hippest for 2017.

Bartolo Colon

We’ve already professed our admiration for any pro athlete confident enough to sport a Michelin Man physique, but we’d be remiss leaving Colon off The List. He’s known as Big Sexy for good reason: he’s as anxiety-free on the mound as Maddon is in the dugout. Mets pitchers learned from Colon’s pitching philosophy – velocity doesn’t have to be king – and the inverse logic that defeats sluggers.

Bryce Harper

It’s hard to vote against any player who started a campaign called: Make Baseball Fun Again. Harper wants the sport to abandon the unwritten rules that frown on bat-flips and that super-slow home run trots and having fun on Twitter – most recently with Yankees’ prospect Clint Frazier.

Now fast forward two years and imagine Harper in pinstripes, self-expressing in Joe Girardi’s clubhouse. Talk about the potential collision of matter and anti-matter. It’s worth holding your breath for.

Washington Nationals' Bryce Harper reacts after scoring on a game-winning, two-run home run by Ian Desmond during a 2016 game against the Arizona Diamondbacks.(Photo: HARAZ GHANBARI/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Giancarlo Stanton

Let’s start with this disclaimer: we have no use for the All-Star Game’s Home Run Derby. Watching major leaguers crush 62-mph meatballs is like seeing LeBron James dunk on a nine-foot basket. Sorry, it’s just too artificial to be taken seriously.

Nevertheless, Stanton’s performance last July was breathtaking even to a hard-core cynic. He hit 61 HRs to win the crown, including all 10 of the longest homers belted by anyone - five of which were at least 490 feet.

Stanton stands at 6 feet 6, 240 and might as well have been created in a laboratory. Out of curiosity last year, I conducted an informal poll of major league catchers asking who they least wanted to see rounding third on a potential play at the plate.

To a man, they said Stanton. Said one receiver. “You see (Stanton) out of the corner of your eye and you think, “(bleep).” Whether you’re aware of it or not, you end up taking a step away the closer he gets. You just don’t want any part of him.”

Joe Maddon

The over-use of Aroldis Chapman in Game 6 of the World Series aside, Maddon has had an otherwise sterling run of smart moves and visionary leadership. Maddon isn’t just as unflappable, he’s brutally honest with his players. When asked to identify the Cubs’ theme as defending world champs, Maddon said, simply: “uncomfortable.”

He’s already honing in on the year-after syndrome, preparing the Cubs for what comes after breaking a 108-year curse. If anyone can find a new algorithm, it’s Maddon.

The bigger the hack, the more vulnerable they are to off-speed stuff. That’s not just an in-game strategy, it’s a way of life. Bravo.

Pedro Martinez

No one matches Martinez for honesty and spot-on analysis on the MLB Network. The former Red Sox and Mets star is the same person today as he was throughout his career. He’s still a gift to the game, even if it’s in a studio instead of the mound. In his prime, Martinez was the best big-game pitcher around – at the top of a list that included Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux.

It was more than just talent, it was ego, too. Pedro once told Sports Illustrated, “there are days when the mound feels closer than it’s supposed to be. Then I know right away, it’s over. You are (bleeped).”

Noah Syndergaard

The Mets’ monster righty may sound reserved, rehearsed and unfailingly boring in those postgame interviews on SNY.

That’s no coincidence. Syndergaard has made a conscious decision to tone down his remarks on a day-in, day-out basis. But don’t fooled. For a glimpse of how funny and insightful Thor is, go to his Twitter feed and you’ll realize he has a personality to match that 100-mph fastball.

Theo Epstein

No MLB executive will ever match Billy Beane’s feat of being portrayed by Brad Pitt in a feature-length film. That earned Beane lifetime status in the super-hip fraternity. But the Ivy League-educated Epstein made history of his own in the aftermath of the Cubs’ World Series conquest – so caught up at breaking the Curse that he went on the air after a few too many cold ones.

“I’m going on a bender,” Epstein slurred in front of the camera. “Wake me up at the winter meetings (in December).”

Chris Sale

Warning: do not crowd this man. Anyone who has the nerve to cut up his team’s throwback jerseys needs room to vent. Who knows, maybe Sale’s tantrum last summer was designed to force the White Sox to trade him, which they eventually did to the Red Sox. But the left-hander, who was suspended for five games, pulled no punches explaining why he was so angry at his employers.

“For (the White Sox) to put business first over wining, that’s when I lost it,” he said. ”Do I regret standing up for what I believe in? Absolutely not.”

Sale will be pitching with the highest possible expectations in 2017, for a team expected to go to the World Series. There’s no hiding in Boston. This is an irresistible storyline.

Jose Bautista

He's smart and articulate and doesn’t mind the occasional bat-flip. OK, it’s more than occasional - it’s part of Bautista’s tool kit as one of the game’s most controversial figures. But that personality, combined with declining production in 2016, kept him from finding another team as a free agent this winter. Instead, Bautista was forced to return to the Blue Jays on a one-year deal. Is it possible he’ll be humbled? Nah.

Aroldis Chapman

There’s a segment of the public that’ll forever hold a grudge against Chapman for a domestic violence incident in 2015. But for those who believe the closer has served his punishment, he’s stands alone in his ability to terrify hitters. No one in baseball throws harder, no one has a more violent, asymmetrical delivery, no one has a similar impact on an opposing manager’s in-game strategy – just to avoid that triple-digit fastball in the ninth inning.

As flamboyant as his pitching style is, however, Chapman is mostly a mystery in the clubhouse. He relies on an interpreter for interviews, and except for criticizing Maddon for burning him out in the World Series, largely avoids expressing strong opinions. Chapman keeps to himself around teammates, too. We may never know what makes him tick.

New York Mets 2017

Spring Training Schedule

Stadium: Tradition Field, 525 NW Peacock Blvd., Port St. Lucie

Contact: 772-871-2115

Online: mets.com | stluciemets.com

Game times: All home games begin at 1:10 p.m.; all away games begin at 1:05 p.m.